On the Road - The Cross-Country Crusade to Defend Hacker Kevin Mitnick.
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By Kevin Poulsen (August 7, 1998)


   Wednesday  night  finds  me  in a seedy, bohemian bar in Los Angeles's
   downtown  art  district,  straining  to hear over the band as Emmanuel
   Goldstein  describes  his  cross-country journey from New York and the
   cause that drove him here.

   "Unpaved  roads, lousy food..." He takes another swig of Rolling Rock.
   "But  this  is  important.  The Mitnick case affects a lot of people--
   he's not going to be the only one."

   The  38-year-old  Goldstein  is  best known as the editor of 2600: The
   Hacker's  Quarterly.  Tonight  he's showing his true colors: There's a
   mad  glint  in  his  eye  and a cell phone glued to his ear, and after
   working since the crack of dawn he still speaks in energetic spurts of
   revolutionary zeal. He's an activist, a radical with no doubts.

   But what he really wants to do is direct.

   "We've  shot  35  hours  of  footage  so far, in New York, Pittsburgh,
   Tulsa,  Las  Vegas.  We  talked  to  Kevin's  grandmother  for hours."
   Goldstein  is  collecting material for a documentary on the trials
   and tribulations of imprisoned hacker Kevin Mitnick.

   He's  traveling  with  a professional cameraman and sound engineer and
   visiting college campuses, various corporations, and Mitnick's friends
   and  family  members.  The  whole  time he's distributing leaflets and
   bumper  stickers--  and  rolling tape. "It's not entirely unselfish of
   me," he confides. "I always wanted to get into filmmaking."

   Filmmaking  has been central to Goldstein's campaign since last month,
   when  he  obtained an advance copy of the screenplay for Takedown, the
   upcoming    Miramax   production   dramatizing   cybersleuth   Tsutomu
   Shimomura's electronic pursuit of Kevin Mitnick.

   The early draft colored Mitnick as a villain in a classic horror tale,
   prompting  Goldstein  to  organize  a  protest  outside  the  studio's
   headquarters  in  New  York.  A  more recent script is reportedly much
   improved  but  still  includes  a fabricated scene in which the hacker
   smashes  Shimomura's  skull  with  a  garbage  can  lid,  among  other
   embellishments.

   Or  as  Goldstein's  Day-Glo flyers put it, "STOP MIRAMAX! Since Kevin
   Mitnick  is powerless while he's imprisoned, it's up to those of us in
   the free world to see that justice is done."

   Mitnick  was  arrested  in  February  1995  when Shimomura tracked the
   fugitive  to  an  apartment in North Carolina. Shimomura then sold the
   book  and movie rights. The hacker went on to serve 14 months for cell
   phone  fraud  and probation violations and is now facing a twenty-five
   count  federal  indictment charging that he cracked Internet computers
   and copied proprietary software.

   Last May, an appeals court ruled that Mitnick can be held without bail
   as a flight risk and a danger to the community, without the benefit of
   a formal hearing-- a decision his lawyers are appealing to the Supreme
   Court. His trial is set for January 19, 1999.

   Mitnick's  supporters  believe  he's  been  unfairly  vilified  by the
   government  and  media.  Last  year,  cyberpunks  were calling for his
   freedom  by cracking the websites of such pig-dog oppressors as Yahoo!
   and UNICEF.

   Now,  under  Goldstein's  leadership,  they're  adopting  time-honored
   methods  of  social  organizing:  bumper  stickers,  demonstrations, a
   website,  and  a defense fund that's reportedly raised over $3,000
   in contributions.

   And  now they're fighting back with a movie of their own, in the style
   of  activist/director  Michael Moore's Roger and Me. "Moore is a great
   inspiration to me," Goldstein says in another energetic burst. "Anyone
   who  stands  up  for what he believes in is an inspiration. That's the
   spirit of a hacker, and it's the spirit of an individual."

   Happy birthday

   Outside  the  bar,  in the desolate neighborhood of artists' lofts and
   old  warehouses,  we can see the federal Metropolitan Detention Center
   looming  a  few  blocks  away.  Tomorrow,  Mitnick will spend his 35th
   birthday in the nine-story concrete building. It will be his third one
   there.

   The  jail  was  the  location of Goldstein's last shoot. "They say you
   can't  film a federal prison," Goldstein says. "But we had to film the
   place that Kevin has been for three-and-a-half years."

   Goldstein also learned that the jail has a new resident: serial snitch
   Justin  Petersen. He's being held on a probation violation in the same
   building  as  the  man  he  once  set up. The convicted bank thief and
   credit card swindler is expected to be set free before Mitnick goes to
   trial.

   As  Goldstein  climbs into his car with his camera crew, he hands me a
   stack  of fliers and bumper stickers. His cell phone is ringing again;
   he's  got  to  go.  "We're  going to try to say hi to Shimomura in San
   Diego  tomorrow,"  he  explains  with  a grin. "But I don't think it's
   going to work."

   With that, he pulls out onto the road.